The Erotic Mind-Control Story Archive

Something In the Water

Chapter 22 Sun Tzu, Occam, and those Three Words.

It’s morning. Wednesday. The sun pours through the uncurtained window, exposing the pure white of the walls and the ceiling above. It’s a world bathed in light. The bed and Sharon, resting on her side. Her eyes closed, her nudity barely covered in a light sheet. Full breasts, the nipples protruding through the thin fabric. Her long dark legs rubbing against the mattress cushion. Her chest rises and falls slowly.

He’s seeing her.

He stares at her. Her almond face. Her small soft lips. His body resting on the bed beside her, facing her. Her dark skin. Her eyes, even in sleep, whispering the frayed edges of the night before. Him wanting to do everything that he could to take those feelings away. Three words. One word. His thoughts. And everything that has changed with them.

The knot is gone in his stomach; the fear ebbing, and bearable. He wasn’t alone in this. He wasn’t alone to face Andrew. He had never been alone. He’d just never realized it. He’d never really understood what it meant to have people there for him, to understand what a real friend meant.

His eyes and mind come back to her face. The wane smile at the edge of her lips. She was the first. She was always there. From the very moment that he had met her for the second time. Three words. One word. And everything that has changed with them.

What is she going to say to him when she finds out? How is she going to take it? She’d wanted a creature inside of her. She wanted the chance to really fight Andrew with the same abilities that he brought to the table. And he hadn’t done it. He couldn’t do it. He couldn’t do it because of those three words. Because of that one word.

“I guess I’m just going to have to trust” he whispers to himself just as much as to Sharon sleeping next to him. His hand falls gently against her face.

She stirs. Her eyes open. Deep brown. Groggy a moment. Then clear as the day. The wane smiling showing teeth. Her hand falls against his face. Her eyes search his slowly, saying nothing, saying everything. She knows. She knew even before he did.

“Good morning” he whispers to her, his voice cracking.

Her eyes fall upon him. The smile disappearing. Her fingers dancing across his cheek,“Did you sleep at all last night?”

Daniel shakes his head, “Not really. A lot of things have been happening.”

The troubled eyes come to the surface, turning away from him, “You’re telling me.”

He hesitates with what he wanted to say next. He sees the story playing across her face, the thoughts and memories of the recent days. Andrew having come for her and coming up short taking it out against her family. Her baby brother bleeding his life away before her very eyes. He sees the imagined darkening disappointment, the despair clouding those eyes. What he stands to lose by those words.

But there was hope. There was a real and honest chance. It wasn’t just him. It wasn’t just her. There wasn’t just one choice. But he has to tell her. He has to tell her everything.

“Sharon.” He whispers.

Her attention turning towards him. Her eyes looking deep into his.

Those three words,“ I love you.” The long words echo for Daniel. His hand laying against her face. His eyes deep into hers.

That smile in her face, weak but still hers staring back at him. Her eyes searching. That one word staring back at her. That one word staring back at him. She closes her eyes and her lips press against his.

Daniel feels that warmth, that searching intensity as his arms wrap tightly around her. Her flesh pressing into his. Her lips pressing over and over into his. His hands held against her face. His eyes seeing nothing, but his lips searching hers. Pressing against her cheek. Holding her.

He tries to gather himself, the next part is hard, hard, but he has to do it, “Last night. Last night I didn’t do it. You don’t have one of those creatures.”

Her eyes go thoughtful, there’s a pause, “I guessed that.” Her hand never leaves his face as her eyes turn back towards his. Her hand reassures, but her eyes darken sober.

“There’s something else Sharon” he whispers to her, “something good.”

Darkened eyes,“What?”

Pushing back with the worthy smile,“Hope.”

Doubt.“What do you mean?”

That’s when he told her about what happened earlier.

* * *

9:04 am

Bernake sitting in his chair, legs up over his desk, tired, exhausted. Running on less than four hours of sleep. Wouldn’t be so bad if he hadn’t been running around so much the night before.

Furrowed brow. Sighing. The blinds are pulled but he can hear the bustling sounds of the media crowd near his window. Onlookers, locals, even out of towners are gathering to form an ever growing mass of people.

The events of the previous evening have done nothing but increase public interest in the events that were transpiring. The same news people were there, but now they had been joined by larger crowds, more people wanting to know what was going on.

And him knowing what was going on, knowing that he could not tell them.

Bernake shaking his head. His eyes scanning over his desk,the security tapes from downstairs. Andrew has been so fucking sloppy. But what should expect from an academic? The images playing in his head from the previous day cameras. A bitter smile. Of course it was Julie. Thinking from the perspective of a hornographic male. She was the one woman on the force that any man would give their left arm to have sex with. She knew it too.

And she was Andrew’s now.

Bernake shaking his head. His attention shifting.

Charlie, his partner, opening the door to their office. His attention on his partner. He pauses at the door. His hand resting on the handle the other holding a cup of coffee. Their eyes catch. Charlie looking him over up and down. “Jesus Christ Phil, did you sleep in those clothes?”

Bernake,” It was a busy night.”

Charlie concerned,“What were you up to?”

“Malarkey corroborated Daniel’s story. As weird as the story is, as far as I can tell it’s real.”

Charlie nods. Thoughtful eyes. Eyes drifting towards Bernakes’s desk. The security tapes. His hand gesturing towards it. “So who’s our mole?”

“Julie Moore.”

Charlie, “Well...at least Andrew has good taste.”

Bernake nods. He starts pacing. His partner takes a seat.

Charlie,“ Well, we should be able to find out where Andrew is held up now. We just put a tale on Julie and she leads us right to him.”

“I know. And then what?”

Charlie shrugging his shoulders,“ Arrest him, shoot him, turn him over to the FBI.” He hears the pause. Bernake turning to his partner. Charlie stressing each word, “turn him over to your wonder boy and see what he can do.”

The scoff.

Charlie ,“Look Phil. You know what I want to do? I did your Occam’s Razor bullshit into the late hours last night. You know what I came up with?”

“Nothing.”

“Exactly. If Malarkey corroborates we have the evidence we need to get the Feds involved. Mystery is solved. Our job is done. I say we pass the buck along.”

Bernake doesn’t know what to say. He doesn’t like it, but he’d been thinking about the dilemma the whole night through and come up with the exact same conclusion. Sure there was all of those people that would have their lives torn apart. All of Andrew’s slaves, innocents who’s only real crime was being pretty enough to be lusted after by some college grad student. But what other real options were there? Trust in some little fucking kid? He didn’t doubt that Daniel had good intentions but he’d have to be nuts to do that. When compared with what might happen if he didn’t move on this But..But... His mind drifts. His eyes move towards the telephone on his desk.

Bernake, “Let’s giver wonderboy a chance first.”

Charlie follows his partner’s eyes, shifting between him and the phone. “What do you have in mind?”

Bernake lifts the receiver up from the cradle. His eyes turning towards his partner as he dials. ”We meet, compare notes. Maybe he knows something I don’t.”

”And if he doesn’t?”

“You’re plan B Charlie.”

His partner nods his head, “Alright, alright. I can live with that.”

The phone rings. The person on the other end picks up.

* * *

“The general who wins a battle makes many calculations in his temple before the battle is fought.

— From Sun Tzu’s “The Art of War.”

Around 10 in the morning. Sharon in a white tank top and borrowed pajama pants sitting at the kitchen table across from him. Her legs are propped up in front of her. Her feet resting on the chair she is sitting on. A notepad and pen sitting on the table in front of her. Coffee. Her brow is furrowed deeply. Her lips pinched tightly close as somber eyes move back and forth. The book pages passing through her fingers. “A Book of Five Rings: Miyamoto Musashi.”

His head shifts back down at the book in front of him. He stares at that line written down in his notebook. His eyes rove the page. Thoughts mixing with the words that he has written down. Words that seemed important as he skimmed through.

He will win who, prepared himself, waits to take the enemy unprepared.

Wait? He’s been waiting. Andrew has just escalated everything. Doing that has only made things worse. He can prepare the people around him all he wants. Andrew will be doing the same. And Detective Bernake was losing patience fast. He didn’t have the luxury of waiting for Andrew to slip up.

Back to the page:The clever combatant takes individual talent into account, and uses each man according to his abilities.

“What are we looking for Daniel?”

He turns his eyes up from the book, the notes. Sharon looking at him from across the table. He stares back at her, thinking, “Ideas... direction...something to do short of turning this into some kind of escalating war.”

Her eyes continue to search his,“What did you talk about on the phone with Detective Bernake?”

Daniel swallows, “He’s seriously considering getting the federal government involved unless I come up with some kind of alternative.”

Sharon nods her head, she goes thoughtful a moment, her head shifts back down towards the book she has in her lap. “How much time do you have?”

Daniel head turns behind him to the sink, the clock resting above it; 10:17 in the morning. “I’m supposed to meet with him at a cafe in Havenbrook in just over two hours.”

“That’s why you were pressing so hard to read this stuff?”

“Yeah.”

She nods her head again. Her head low, eyes never leaving the page. “I want to come with.”

“I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

He watches her wane smile. She bites her lip. Her eyes flick up towards his. She pulls the book out onto the table so that he can see it. “I like this quote.” Her finger points towards a section titled “Crossing at a Ford”

Daniel reads the words aloud,“ I believe this ‘crossing at a ford’ occurs often in a man’s lifetime. It means setting sail even though your friends stay in the harbor, knowing the route, knowing the soundness of your ship, and the favor of the day. When all the conditions are met, and there is a favorable wind, or a tailwind, then set sail. If the wind changes within a few miles of your destination, you must row across the remaining distance without sail. “

His attention turns from the book in front of him to the woman staring back at him. The question on his face plainly readable.

Sharon ,“ A true warrior always knows his path. He waits for the right time, and if things get difficult he still presses on.”

Daniel. Skepticism. Pause. Sighs,“ This is good but...” her eyes watching his, he can see his face reflected in her eyes,“ I need something more concrete. I need to be able to convince the Detective that there’s a possibility for everything to turn out right.”

She nods her head slowly,“I don’t think that we’re going to find an absolute answer here Daniel. I’m starting to realize that these books attract so many people because they’re advice is general.”

Daniel’s head down lowers down. His eyes staring down at the table. Sharon can see the conflict playing across his face. His hand is digging into his pocket, feeling at the note left by Andrew in his mailbox. He thought he had till Friday. But the way Bernake was talking on the phone...if he couldn’t turn out something good in the next couple hours the Detective was going to the Feds. And then things were really going to get a lot worse.

“If you know the enemy and know yourself you need not fear the outcome of 100 battles.” Daniel’s attention turns. Sharon holds his notebook up, reading a line he had written from the book. He watches her eyes scanning the written texts, how her mind thinks on the words.

She looks up at him,“ What made these lines important to you?”

Daniel shrugs after a moment,“ I thought they covered basically the core ideas that Sun Tzu was trying to get at.”

“Which were?”

Again his eyes go thoughtful. After several moments he looks at her,“War isn’t about fighting as much as it is control of information. Knowing your enemy’s temperament, knowing your resources and the terrain that you’re going to be fighting on. Deceiving the enemy into fighting on your terms. That sort of stuff.”

Sharon nods after awhile,“ That sounds like good advice.”

Daniel shook his head,“ Sure, but I don’t how to apply them. I don’t know where Andrew is. I don’t know what’s important to him.”

“What and we don’t know someone who could find that out?”

“How-“ That gives Daniel a pause. His mind goes towards Detective Bernake. His mind turns towards the notebook sitting in front of Sharon, the last line he’d read before she’d interrupted him. ...uses each man according to his ability. The pieces slowly clicked into place. “The police detective just might be able to though.”

Sharon nods her head, “Yeah, maybe.”

Daniel stopping, thinking. The leading questions. Her last words. He lifts his eyes, looking hard into her,“You were just leading me on weren’t you?”

Her eyes look back into his. Amusement flashes across them. She shakes her head.“You give me too much credit Daniel.”

Daniel smiles back,staring at Sharon in a white tank top and a borrowed pair of pajama pants; Her wane smile, and still somber eyes, “I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

* * *

11:46 am

“Is the GPS on Julie’s car?”

“Yeah, Phil I took care of it. We should know where Andrew is by the end of today.”

“That’s good.”

“So where you meeting up with him?”

“I have a friend in Havenbrook who owns a bar. It’s quiet, off the main streets. I doubt any reporter would expect to find an eighteen year old highschool kid there.”

“If it’s worth anything Phil, I hope I’m wrong.”

“ I do too.”